Air Yards

by Roland Johnson on March 14, 2009

While sifting through different stats & sites that break down stats I came across what Brian Burke of advancedstats.com is coining as “Air Yards”. To get to the hidden stat within the game of football he subtracts the total number of YAC yards a team generates throughout the course of a game or season from the total number of passing yards to come up with his “Air Yard” stats. So after tracking down the necessary stats to run the equation, I have also broken down the percentage of YAC Yards & Air Yards per team then came up with the adjusted average for the entire NFL.

Also in the chart you will find Yards per completion through the air for each team along with YAC yards per reception and TD’s per completion.

While many fans were hoping the team would swing a trade for Matt Cassel, he was one of only four quarterbacks who relied on his receiving corps for more then 50% of his total yards and was the most dependent of all with 57% of his total yards coming in the form of YAC. Where as Eli Manning was the least dependent on his receiving corps as only 37% of his total yards came in the form of YAC. The NFL average for YAC per reception was 5.18 yards, where as the Patriots receivers averaged 6.35 YAC yards per receptions which was the highest for any team in the league or 1.17 yards above average. Cassel or this case “ Captain Checkdown” as he averaged 4.83 yards per pass through the air before the football was caught which was 31st in the NFL with only one team doing worse, which was the Bengals at 4.75 yards through the air before the football was caught.

I am sure some of you are wondering how well the Buccaneers passing game faired, well with the NFL average for YAC yards being 1,633 last season the Bucs managed to gain 1,736 which is 103 YAC yards better then the average.. The Air yard league average was 1,954 yards and the Bucs managed 2,052 or 98 yards above league average. As far as the league percentage for YAC yards and Air yards the team cam e in 46% of there yards coming in the form of YAC and 54% of them coming in the form of Air Yards which is also the league average.

The NFL average for yards through the air before the football is caught translated to 6.21 yards and the passing attack of the Bucs came in at 5.78 yards almost a half yard short to the league average.

On a side note the quarterback who averaged the highest yards through the air before the football was caught was Jake Delhomme with an average of 8.21 yards. Which is remarkable, to think of considering he was coming off of surgery to repair his shoulder.